I Never Sang for My Father, Death at a Funeral, Cape Fear: films on TV today

As the retired Gene Hackman’s biggest fan, I urge you to record this screening of the family drama that earned the then-emergent star his second supporting actor Oscar nomination (after Bonnie and Clyde). Yet to cement his reputation in The French Connection, Hackman draws on his stage experience here to play a widowed New York professor whose toxic relationship with a domineering father (Melvyn Douglas) prevents him from remarrying and moving to California. It’s directed by Gilbert Cates (Phoebe’s uncle), and Estelle Parsons, Hackman’s wife in Bonnie and Clyde, also shines as his disowned sister. But Hackman steals it, especially in one heartbreaking scene that I won’t spoil.

The Book of Eli ★★★
9.00-11.20pm 5★

A grizzled, sunglasses-clad Denzel Washington has all the gravitas you could wish as the lone wanderer walking west across America on a quest that might restore hope to his post-apocalyptic world.

Death at a Funeral ★★★
Premiere 9.00-11.00pm Movie Mix

Brothers Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence air their dirty laundry at their father's funeral – and they aren't the only ones – in this outrageous farce, which receives its first showing on Freeview tonight.

Hot Fuzz ★★★★
10.00pm-12.25am ITV2

The US action flick meets English murder mystery when mismatched cops Simon Pegg and Nick Frost try to solve a string of grisly deaths out in the country in this terrific romp from the Shaun of the Dead crew.

Cape Fear ★★★★
10.00pm-12.30am ITV4

Martin Scorsese's remake stars Robert De Niro as a psychopathic ex-con with a penchant for tattoos who wants revenge on the lawyer (Nick Nolte) he blames for his incarceration.

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